Bangladesh government rebuffs pleas to admit Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar violence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rohingya refugees

Bangladesh has rebuffed pleas from the United Nations and other groups to allow in Rohingya Muslims displaced by sectarian clashes in Myanmar, continuing to turn away their boats at its borders.

Border guards “foiled two separate attempts of Rohingyas to enter” Bangladesh on Wednesday, the national news agency reported, sending 70 people back to Myanmar. About 1,500 Rohingya fleeing Myanmar in boats have been turned back since the weekend, when clashes broke out with the majority Rakhine Buddhist population, the Associated Press reported.

“It is not in our interest that new refugees come from Myanmar,” Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told reporters in Dhaka on Tuesday. She reiterated that position Wednesday, the national news agency said.

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Allowing EDL to march through Bristol is ‘best case scenario’, police claim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A security operation costing up to £1m and involving 700 police officers is being organised ahead of an English Defence League (EDL) march in Bristol.

The EDL will hold the march on 14 July – the same day as the city’s gay community holds its annual Pride festival at College Green in the city. Police have said their aim is to ensure both events are trouble free and there is protection for the public. The police operation will involve drafting in officers from Yorkshire, south Wales and the south of England.

Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police Colin Port said: “The English Defence League will march and at the moment we are trying to make contact with the people who are going to protest against them. We’re going to open meetings because we don’t know what they’re going to do, but we want to work with them.”

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Solihull man admits ripping off Muslim woman’s veil in race attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ian BrazierA racist thug ripped off a Muslim woman’s veil in a drug-fuelled rage after the films he wanted to see were not showing at the cinema.

Farhana Chughtai said she was left humiliated when Ian Brazier pulled off her niqab as she walked with her family through Solihull’s Touchwood shopping centre.

Brazier, 26, and from Shirley, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated common assault at Solihull Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

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Islamophobes call on Tennessee governor to fire Muslim economic development officer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shariah Finance Watch

Tea party and anti-Muslim activists are taking aim at a recent hire by the administration of Gov. Bill Haslam, targeting one of its top economic development officers based on her religion and past work experience.

The Center for Security Policy, a Washington, D.C., organization that has frequently attacked Muslims for perceived ties to Islamist groups, and the 8th District Tea Party Coalition, an umbrella organization of West Tennessee tea party groups, have urged their members to pressure Haslam and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty to dump Samar Ali, an attorney appointed last month as the department’s new international director.

The groups depict Ali as an Islamic fundamentalist with close ties to President Barack Obama. The claims are spurious and ECD has no intention of firing Ali, said Clint Brewer, a department spokesman. “She’s eminently qualified to do the job,” Brewer said. “We are lucky to be able to have her.”

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Judge blocks occupancy certificate for Murfreesboro Islamic Center

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Murfreesboro judge has blocked local officials from issuing an occupancy certificate for a new mosque.

The move comes about two weeks after Rutherford County Chancellor Robert Corlew ruled that construction approval for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was void. Corlew agreed with mosque opponents that there was not sufficient public notice of the meeting where construction had been approved two years earlier.

Despite that ruling, county officials have not taken steps to stop mosque construction.

At a Wednesday hearing, plaintiffs asked Corlew to order the county to act. “What is Tennessee Open Meetings law about, and what are the consequences, if you can say ‘Yes, you violated the open meetings law but there are no consequences?'” attorney Joe Brandon Jr. asked.

Corlew declined to halt construction, saying his ruling was not enforceable until after a 30-day appeal period. The Planning Commission voted Monday to appeal. The County Commission will take up the issue Thursday.

However, Corlew did grant an injunction preventing county officials from taking new actions to forward mosque construction. He later clarified that the specific action the county could not take was granting an occupancy certificate.

Construction is nearly complete for the first phase of the Islamic Center, which consists of a 12,000-square-foot multipurpose area that will be used for worship as well as special events. Mosque members hope to have the building ready in time for Ramadan, which begins at the end of July.

Corlew’s injunction could prevent mosque members from celebrating the Muslim holy month in their new space, although either the county or the mosque could to take actions to try to alter or delay the ruling.

Associated Press, 13 June 2012

Posted in USA

English Defence League in Rochdale

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Stephen Lennon with QuranThis weekend saw the English Defence League pouring into Rochdale to protest against what they believe was underlying cultural issues which saw nine men convicted last month for grooming under-age girls for sex.

EDL visited last year too in March, voicing concern over the same issue. But this time it was different. The arguments were more refined and directed. It wasn’t the usual rants that have been echoed by EDL members at national rallies: “extremist Islam is the problem”, or “Muslims want Shariah law”.

Outside Rochdale town centre, EDL leader, Tommy Robinson held the Quran and said, “This book legitimises the rape, prostitution and abuse of our daughters”. Crowds cheered him on as he continued to deplore what he referred to as a “7th century text”.

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Wilders was misrepresented by BBC – he never called for the Qur’an to be banned (it says here)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Telegraph blogger Ed West recommends a new report by former BBC journalist Dennis Sewell, A Question of Attitude: The BBC and Bias Beyond News, in which the author accuses the Beeb of abandoning impartiality in order to further its left-liberal political agenda and “cites a number of BBC programmes which have, he feels, been unjustifiably biased”.

West offers us an egregious example: “Worst of all, perhaps, wasGeert Wilders – Europe’s Most Dangerous Man? (BBC Two – February 2011).” He quotes Sewell’s attack on what he claims was the documentary’s misrepresentation of Wilders’ views:

Billed as a profile of the controversial Dutch politician, for much of the time it felt more like a character assassination…. More than once in the film, emphasis was placed on Wilders’ supposed wish to have the Koran banned…. Wilders has many times explained and clarified his position on this – and indeed is briefly glimpsed in the film, trying to do so at a press conference. The truth of the matter is that, within the context of a discussion on banning the sale of Mein Kampf in Holland (a measure that was passed into law at the instigation of the Left), Wilders remarked that, if the Left were to be consistent, the logic of its arguments for banning Hitler’s book should lead it also to seek a ban on the Koran, which contains passages that it should find just as odious as the passages in Mein Kampf that were so objectionable.

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Leyton: Mosque extremism complaint ‘sour grapes’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid-al-TawhidAn investigation into a mosque’s alleged links with extremists was prompted by false accusations from “bitter” former members following an internal row, it is claimed.

The Charity Commission said last week it was looking into claims made about the Madrasah Al-Tawhid Trust, which runs a place of worship in Leyton High Road.

A letter containing details of the complaint was widely leaked to the London and national media, suggesting someone involved wanted high-profile publicity of the allegations.

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Minnesota: city council rejects Islamic center plan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

St. Anthony City Council members on Tuesday rejected plans to locate an Islamic center in the basement of the former Medtronic headquarters off Old Hwy. 8.

The proposed Abu-Huraira Islamic Center had been on hold for months after some residents objected to the center and city leaders studied whether city zoning would support the facility.

About 150 people attended Tuesday’s council meeting, where Muslim proponents asked the council to approve the nearly 15,000-square-foot center, which would be used for worship and assembly by the congregation of about 200.

“I’m a proud American. This is home. The center will serve the needs of our community,” Sadik Warfa said. “I know this issue is very emotional for some people. We are a melting pot. We are all Americans.”

Close to a dozen St. Anthony residents asked the council to deny the proposal, which they argued would reduce tax revenues, an argument Mayor Jerry Faust denied. Others contended the center would attract increased traffic in the neighborhood and create problems for those living nearby.

Some who spoke against the center made disparaging comments about the Muslim faith, although Faust tried to discourage such remarks. “Islam is evil. There’s no other religion in the world that endorses violence,” said John Murlowski, before Faust cut him off.

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CAIR calls for Dearborn fire to be investigated as bias-motivated arson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dearborn Woods Community CenterThe Council for American-Islamic Relations is calling on the FBI to investigate a fire that destroyed a mosque-owned structure Tuesday in Dearborn as a bias-motivated crime.

The storage space, about the size of a garage, is located off of Pelham Street next to Edsel Ford High School. It sits next to what used to be the Dearborn Woods Presbyterian Church, but is now known as the Dearborn Woods Community Center.

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